A Coach's Diary

Have you ever been on a team where one athlete's bad attitude affected everyone in the group? There is a saying that, "One bad apple spoils the bunch." The phrase is used to describe a situation in which one person's negative attitude can negatively affect the entire group, causing them to have a similar negative attitude. I'm not sure how or where this phrase began, but it does have some basis in science. When apples begin to decay, they emit gasses. If the rotting apple is mixed in with other apples, the good apples can absorb the gasses and begin to rot as well. It is important to keep good apples away from bad apples. I've had similar experiences on teams. I have had teams become torn apart because the negative attitudes and behaviors of one teammate went unchecked. I have also had similar experiences with individual athletes. They allow one bad apple, one negative influence, or one correctable character flaw to negatively affect who they are, and it kills...

Competition can bring out the best in people and the worst in people. Everyone loves a good rivalry because it's intense and exciting.  Great opponents bring the best out of us. They push us harder and farther than we can push ourselves. They force us to rise to the occasion. It is important to appreciate and respect our opponents because they push us to be the best that we can be. And it's important to remember that even in the middle of the toughest battles if you are a follower of Jesus, and to do as Jesus did. You can be the fiercest competitor and still be a good person. BE A GOOD PERSON AND DO GOOD THINGS Goodness is defined as the quality of being morally good or virtuous, but goodness  is more than being a nice, kind, and polite model citizen. Goodness is an excellence of character that actively and intentionally works from the inside out and is seen and felt by everyone that you come in contact with. Goodness is about being a good person, but it is also about being a ...

Teams that have a great culture where everyone is engaged, energized, passionate, and on the same page tend to beat teams that don't have great cultures. Think about it - if you have a connected team where everybody feels like they belong, valued, and are safe competing against a team with athletes who aren't engaged, energized, passionate, and together, of course you have a better chance of winning. This is something that author and HR visionary Eric Mosley has written about and created great teams around, and this is something that can help your team maximize its potential. When talking to  researcher, author, and professor  Brene Brown, Eric said that great teams do three things great - they talk, they give thanks, and they celebrate each other. Great Teams Talk Eric said that Harvard did a study about the efficacy of regular check-ins and reported that these check-ins helped teams and team members perform better. He said that it didn't matter what they talked about - h...

Basketball, like all sports, is a game of mistakes and random events. Mistakes will happen; we just have to manage how we respond to them. Having a next play mentality is important. We have to be able to move on quickly from a mistake so that we are in the moment and prepared to make the next play. Have a plan for responding to future, inevitable mistakes. The best players and the best teams know how to respond to mistakes, they know how to move on, and they know how to stay focused and in the moment. One thing that could help is having 'Next Play Teammates.' A next play teammate is someone whose job is to recognize mistakes and to immediately cheer for their teammates, yell next play, and help them move on. Every great team has great teammates, and those teammates don't have to be on the court. They can be a teammate, manager, or trainer, who supports from the sideline. That teammate can be the person who rebounds for teammates, who make sure their teammates sta...

PLAYERS: How do you want your teammates to think and feel about you? TRY THIS: Write 1-3 sentences stating what you hope that your teammates would say about you in an interview, or on the ride home with their parents, or at the dinner table with their family. Then work, play, and live up to that statement. When I was playing, I would hope that my teammates would say that I want Reggie on my team. He makes me feel confident, and I believe in him. When I play with him, I feel like we have the best chance to win. He works really hard, and he makes me want to work harder. Russell Westbrook is a polarizing figure. Many people outside of his locker room think that he is too mean, too tough, and too out of control. But when you talk to guys inside the locker, most of his teammates LOVE him. One TV analyst had this to say about Russ: His energy is contagious. When you see a guy work like that on a nightly basis and love the game and love to compete, you are either going...

"It has become more apparent how important it is to promote teammates and teams; more than ever.  It has always been a team game for us and our sports, but more than ever, the awareness of our guys to be great teammates is more valuable and more important than it ever has been in my coaching. If you are a great teammate, then you are concerned for others, and the great Bill Russell was in our meeting rooms a couple of years back and out of nowhere he said: "You know what it takes to be a great teammate?   You have to wake up every morning thinking about how you can help one of your teammates be better." That kind of mentality doesn't have to only be on our teams.  Why can't that type of mentality be what it feels like to be an American?  That I am part of a team and what can I do to help the people around me? Why would that not be as important as ever instead of 'lookout for what I got' or 'protect your own' or 'save me.' ...

Great teams, families, classrooms, schools, and organizations share a lot of the same principles and have similar values.           "Link:  Jon Gordon joins MTTS to talk about motivating athletes" Great groups have a shared   vision and  purpose , they stay positive through challenges, they don't allow negativity to sabotage the group, and they work to build great relationships so that they have stronger connections and a stronger team.   Great groups have grit .  They have consistency .  They have mental toughness . Great groups are like craftsmen - people who pursue excellence in their craft.   Great groups put ' we before me .'  They serve their teammates.  When you serve your team, they get better and you get better.  When you help them improve, you improve. It's important to learn how to get through the tough moments and how to perform at your high...

BEING A GREAT TEAMMATE should be a goal of every athlete playing team sports and the goal of every parent for their young athletes.  One of the positive side effects of team sports is learning how to work with and compete with others.  This is a skill that will stick with you for the rest of your life. Make it a goal to be the BEST teammate on the team.  Make it a goal to bring positive energy to every practice and every game.  Make it a goal to push your teammates so that they can be the best that they can be, and make it a goal to pull them along by encouraging. Your teammates might not always treat you right, but you can only control what you can control and how you treat others. When people first think about NBA star Carmelo Anthony, 'great teammate' isn't usually the first thing to come to mind.  But in an interview on the Pull Up Podcast with CJ McCollum, he was asked about his favorite teammates, and Melo had a very insightful response:...

When you are really competing and adversity hits, you will see the true character of your teammates and the true culture of your team.  When things aren't going right, some of your teammates will start to complain and will start to whine. They will start making excuses.  Some teammates start blaming the referee or start blaming their teammates and coaches.  They start to cry, fight and shut down.   YOU can't do that.  You have to keep going, keep pushing and keep fighting.  YOU have to figure it out. The teammates with the right character and the teams with the right culture keep their heads up and don't make excuses.  They don't complain about the referees or about their coaches or about their teammates.  The teammates with the right character and the teams with the right culture encourage their teammates.  They bring positive energy through their actions and their words.  They keep everybody moving forw...